Two visits to the zoo, a couple dozen different animals and some tips on what would make a cool animal from my three year old son... a fun challenge, we'll see how it pans out...
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Place: 4 out of 83 Avg (all users): 6.9844 Avg (commenters): 8.5357 Avg (participants): 6.6875 Avg (non-participants): 7.0529 Views since voting: 5866 Views during voting: 628 Votes: 256 Comments: 41 Favorites: 5 (view)
Very good work, hope you realize it's a huge compliment to have it mistaken for Judi's entry!
ABSOLUTELY! I checked out Judi's work and actually appreciated the compliment more than getting a ribbon... I guess that also makes somebody a monkey's uncle ;)
Thanks to all the (higher than 3) votes and the comments. I started making creatures after a trip to the zoo, and soon found that I was amassing too many creatures to decide which one to put into this challenge. That was when I came up with an idea of how to put more than one creature into the challenge. After a second trip to the zoo, I soon found things getting out of control and had to cut out some of the creatures simply from lack of space.
The hand holding the jar is my 3 year old's as I liked the idea of a young collector (though an old hand would have also worked well). I had him set his hand on the jar rather than hold it as it allowed a better view 'into' the jar without obstructing it with the hand. My biggest problem was that the jar was about 15cm (6 inches) in diameter and the shelves were only 2cm (less than an inch) deep, so I had to hope that I could slip this by unnoticed.
Of course I would have loved to ribbon on my 9th entry on DPC, but even more frustrating was the drop below seven on the last few votes - if only ONE of the people voting 1 on my image had decided to waste their time doing something constructive instead of voting down peoples scores, I would have broken the 7 mark overall.... and they didn't even take the time to leave a comment.... grrrrr - so it goes, I suppose.
The hand doesn't look like it could actually hold the jar. That bothers me. But, I appreciate all the work that this obviously took, so you get a decent bump.
Huge amount of effort here, a great concept too. I really like Ll the various creatures and I like how it all makes sense in terms of story (perfect title). Given the efforts you have gone to, the flat lighting and lowish contrast is a bit of a niggle - I can think a slight vignette, a bit of diffusion in the highlights and a tad more contrast would have have made the whole scene look a little more real. I am sure you wanted to ensure that we could see all of your various creatures but I think sacrificing some clarity, especially towards the edges for the sake of making the whole scene seem more real might have been a better choice.
Still a 10 from me though, and of the three 10s I gave, I think this - for flat out effort, deserves the blue.
I love the creative imagination that I see in this composition! Makes me think of just who this collector of fantastical beasts is; a demigod - a child-god, etc. etc. But back to the beasts. The main creature - hmmm is that the Clazmonian Sow of Greek myths (although it is said to have pink flamingo wings;-) ) I think I also see a gryphon but it does not have wings. There are other 'created' beasts that I cannot tie to any known mythical beasts - I wish there were more identifiable ones for that would have further strengthened the connection to known mythical beasts as opposed to fantastical beasts. Still, a an above average composition that is well done.
THIS is amazing! So creative and believable! I hope all of the images were taken during the challenge. Well done! (not voting)
ETA: Validated! Cool! You really took all of these and did all of this in the challenge period! I'm amazed and pleased. LOT of hard work... and a beautiful image to show for it.
In this particular challenge, you really have to stop and view these images for a while to get all that is going on. I love all the criters you have created and how you displayed them. Really well done. Just one nitpik is the tops of the jars don't match the angle of the shelve but who cares? This is awesome!
An enormous amount of work went into this! Kudos on all the work. Just about the only thing that doesn't work for me is the hand holding the jar. The lighting doesn't quite match, and the tension on the hand doesn't look like it is actually holding such a large jar in it.
Great idea, but two things i noticed immediately was that the angle of the jars and shelf rack do not match. Another thing is i think your image would have had more impact if the "collector's" hand was that of an old person, it would give the sense that he/she has been at this twisted hobby for years. Just my 2 cents.
Impressive amount of work to assemble this collection. I like the choice of the dusty shelves as it gives a slightly darker mood to the overall image - much more "Brothers Grimm" than "Disney".
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